Compound rotary engine.



Ive/863,520. v PATENTED'AUG. 13, 1907. M. B. smoxson. comrounn RQTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED APB.4,'19 07.

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PATENTED AUG. 13 1907.

M- B. BRIGKSON. COMPOUND ROTARY ENGINE. APPLICATION FILED AIfRA, 1907;

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PATENTED AUG. '13, 1907. Mr B. ERIGKSON. COMPOUND ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION x ILED APRA, 1907.

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APPLIOATIO H FILED APBA, 190T- 4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

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MARTIN BI ERIGKSON, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

COMPOUND ROTARY ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 13, 1907.

Application filed April 4,1907. Serial No. 366,324. i

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, lVIARTIN B. ERICKSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county of Hennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Coinpound Rotary Engines, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to improvements in rotary steam engines and consists hereinafter described and claimed.

One object of the invention is to provide a compoundengine of this character which will be simple and durable in construction and economical in operation.

A further object of the invention is to improve and simplify the valve gearing and other parts of rotary engines and thereby render them more expensive.

Further objects and advantages of the invention, as well as the structural features by means of which'these objects are attained, will be made clear by an examination of the following specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1. is a top plan view of my improved compound rotary steam engine; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same; Fig. 3 is an end elevation; Fig. 4 is a detail verti cal transverse section; Fig. 5 is a detail view showing a portion of the opposite end of the engine in elevation; and Fig. 6 is a detail sectional view through the exhaust valve.

The present embodiment of my invention is in the form of a compound engine consisting of three primary or high pressure sections, a, b, c, and three secondary or low pressure sections, d, e, f. Each of these sections or engines is complete in itself and identical in construction with the others, hence a detail description of one will suflice for all.

Each of the sections or engines consists of a body or cylinder 1 formed at its bottom with a suitable base and at its top with a cylindrical steam chamber 2 and having its opposite faces or ends closed by end plates or heads 3 which latter also close'the chamber 2.

4 denotes the shaft which extends through the cylinder and suitable bearings in the plates 3, and has secured upon it the rotary piston 5. The latter is in the form of a cylinder of less diameter than the interior of the cylinder 1 and is provided with a radially projecting wing or head 6 which is adapted to contact with the inner face of the cylinder 1.

Pivoted centrally in the chamber 2 is a swinging abutment 7 so mounted that either of its ends may drop and engage the periphery of the piston 5 to close the space in the cylinder 1 in rear of the head or wing G, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 4. This abutment 7 has its semi-circular hub 8 fixed upon a transverse shaft9 and its bottom face has a curved central portion 10 the in the features of novelty efficient and less curvature of which corresponds to that of the inner wall of the cylinder 1 so that the piston head 6 may pass the abutment. Said bottom of the latter is also formed at its ends with curved portions 11, the curvature of which corresponds to that of the periphery of the piston 5, which periphery they contact when the abutment is tilted from the horizontal.

Steam is admitted into the engine through an inlet 12 which opens into a casing 13 of a combined cut-off and reversing valve 14. This valve is here shown in the form of a substantially semi-circular shaped body rotatably mounted in a cylindrical bore in the casing 13 and adapted to alternately open and close ports 15, 16 formed in the casing or block 13 and opening into the chamber 2 upon opposite sides of the pivot 9 of the abutment. Said casing or block 13 is, asshown in Fig.4, of segmental shape and is arranged in the top of the chamher 2 to divide it into two se'paratedsections. The upper end of the block 13 is suitably secured to or formed integral with the top of the chamber 3 and its lower end is curved to receive the hub 8 of the abutment. The reversing valve 14 is loosely mounted by forming in its flat top a longitudinally extending rectangular opening for the reception of a similar shaped portion of its actuating shaft or pivot 16.

Upon opposite sides of the cylinder 1 are provided exhaust or outlet ports 17 from which lead pipes 18. The latter have their upper ends secured upon the opposite sides of an exhaust valve casing 19 which is suitably secured upon the top of the engine and is formed with three parallel chambers 20, 21, 22. The pipes 18 open into the end chambers 20, 21 which contain rotary exhaust valves 23, 24, as will be seen upon reference to Fig. 6. These valves control ports 25, 26 which afford communication between the chambers 20, 21 and 22, 21. Thus, the exhaust from either side of the engine may pass into the central chamber 21 and from the latter escapes through a suitable outlet 27, as presently explained. The valves 23, 24 are preferably in the form of are shaped slides Which rotate in contact with the inner faces or walls of the chambers 20, 22 and are suitably secured upon transverse shafts 28 to the outer ends of which are connected crank arms 29. These arms are of equal length and are pivotally connected to an operating rod 30 which, when moved in one direction will cause one of the valves to close its port while the port of the other remains open, and when moved in the opposite direction to reverse the position of said valve.

The mechanism for operating the controlling or reversing valve 14 is clearly shown in Fig. 3 and consists of a crank arm 31 secured upon the outer end of the valve shaft 16 and connected to the upper end of a lever 32 which is suitably pivoted intermediate its ends at 33 in a bearing block 34 mounted for sliding movement in a segmental guide 35 secured upon one of the end plates 3. The lower end of the lever is pivotally connected to an adjustable arm 36 upon the strap 37 of an eccentric 38 secured upon the piston shaft 4. The slide or block 34 is connected by a pivoted link 39 to an upright lever 40 which has its lower end pivoted at 41 upon said plate 3. .It will be seen that when the lever 40 is actuated the position of the slide 34 may be changed so that the connection of the lever 32 with the crank 31 and the valve 14 may be shifted so that, as it is oscillated by reason of the connection of the lever to the eccentric, it will be caused to alternately open and close either one of the ports 15, 16 according to the direction of rotation it is desired to give the piston shaft 4. It will be understood that the lever 40 is only shifted when it is desired to change the direction of rotation of the engine.

In order to simultaneously reverse the cut-off valve 14 and the exhaust valves 23, 24 upon each engine or section, I provide a longitudinally extending reversing shaft 41 andjournal it in suitable bearings 4-2 arranged upon the tops of the engines a little to one side of the center. The lever 40 of each engine has its upper end connected by a link 43 to a crank arm 44 secured upon the shaft 41, and each of the operating rods 30 of the exhaust valves is connected to a crank 45 upon said shaft. The latter is operated by a hand lever 46 secured to it and carrying a well known form of hand retracted pawl 47 which engages a segmental rack 48 secured to one of the bearings 42. By means of this pawl and rack the lever and hence the reversing shaftis held in any adjusted position. i

The entrance of steam into the chamber or shaft 2 through either of the ports 15, 16 causes the adjacent end of the abutment 7 to be swung down into engagement with the periphery of the piston 5, and in order to balance the abutment and restore it to its normal horizontal position when the steam pressure is removed, I provide upon one of the projecting ends of its shaft or pivot 9, a cross bar 49. The latter, as shown in Fig. 5, carries oneor more segmental rods 50 which slide through apertured guide brackets 51. on one of the end plates 3 and which serve as guides for coil springs 52. The latter surround the rod or rods 50 and are confined between the stop brackets 51 and the balancing rod 49. The springs 52 are of equal tension so that they hold the bar or lever 49 and hence the abutment 7 normally in a horizontal position.

Live steam from a boiler is admitted simultaneously into the three high pressure sections a, b, c of the engine through a steam supply pipe 53 containing a controlling valve 54 and having three branches 55, each of which communicate with one of the inlet ports 12 of said sections of the engine. The low pressure sections d, e, f receive the exhaust steam from the high pressure sections, the exhaust from the section a being conveyed through a pipe 56 to the section cl, that from the section I) through a pipe 57 to the section a and that from the section 0 through a pipe 58 to the section f, as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2. These pipes 56, 57, 58 each have one -of their ends in communication with the outlet port 27 of the exhaust valve casing of one of the high pressure sections and its opposite end connected to the inlet 12 of one of the low pressure sections. The three low pressure sections exhaust into an exhaust pipe 59 which has three branches 60 in communication with the ports 27 of the exhaust valve casings of said sections. In Fig. 4,

the numeral 61 represents a drain cock at the bottom of the cylinder 1 and the numeral 62 represents suitable packing on the parts 13, 7, 6 and 5.

While the invention may be used simply as an impact engine, I preferably so proportion and time the different valves of each of the sections that the pistons will be driven through portions of their revolutions by the impact of the steam and through the remaining portions by the expansion of the steam. I also preferably so time the valves of the several sections that when the controlling valve 54 is opened, steam will be admitted into the section a until its piston has made two-thirds of a revolution, whereupon its valve 14 will close so that the remainder of the stroke is produced by the expansion of the steam. After the piston of the section a has made one-third of a revolution, the valve 14 of the section I) is opened to admit steam into that section and when the piston of section a has passed through twothirds of its revolution and the piston of section b onethird of its revolution, the valve 14 of the section 0 is then opened. Thus, each of the high pressure sections will be receiving steam during two-thirds of the revolution of their pistons and two of the three sections will be constantly receiving steam. The three low pressure sections work in the same way, only they use the exhaust steam from the high pressure sections. By working the valve gears of each engine separately they may be so set that the valves will open and close at the proper time.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that I do not wish to be limited to the precise details set forth, since various changes in the form, proportion and minor details of the construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention that is defined by the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. in a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder having a chamber in communication therewith, a rotary piston having a wing or head, a swinging abutment arranged in said chamber, a valve casing arranged in said chamber between its wall and said abutment and contain ing a cylindrical valve seat, an inlet port and outlet ports opening into opposite sides of said chamber, a combined reversing and cutoff valve mounted for rotation in said valve seat and adapted to control said outlet ports and means actuated by the shaft of the piston for oscillating said valve.

In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder having a chamber in communication therewith. a rotary piston having a wing or head, a swinging; abutment arranged in said chamber, a valve casing arranged in said chamber between its wall and said abutment and containing a cylindrical valve seat, an inlet port and outlet ports opening into opposite sides of said chamber, a combined reversing and cutoff valve mounted for rotation in said valve seat and adapted to control said outlet ports, means actuated by the shaft of the piston for oscillating said valve, exhaust valves for controlling the exhaust from the opposite sides of the cylinder and means for simultaneously reversing said exhaust valves and said combined reversing and cut-off valve, substantially as described.

In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder having a chamber in communication therewith, a rotary piston having a wing or head, a swinging abutment, means for dividing said chamber into two compartments, means for admitting steam into either of said compartments, and means for balancing said abutment.

4. In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston, an abutment, a combined reversing and cutoff valve, means actuated from the shaft of the piston for operating said valve to cut on and off the inlet of steam, exhaust valves for controlling; the exhaust from the opposite sides of the cylinder and means for simub taneously reversing said exhaust valves and said combined reversing and cut-off valves, substantially as de scribed.

5. In a rotary engine. the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston therein, means for admitting a motive fluid upon either side of the piston, said means including a rotary valve, a lever operatively connected to said valve and to the shaft of the piston, and means for Chang ing the fulcrum of said lever.

(i. In a' rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston therein, means for admitting a motive fluid upon.either side of the piston, said means including a rotary valve. a lever operatively connected to said valve and to the shaft of the piston, means for controlling the exhaust from either side of the cylinder and means for simultaneously operating said exhaust controlling means and shifting the fulcrum of said lever.

T. In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston therein, means for admitting a motive fluid upon either side of the piston, said means including a rotary valve. a lever operatively connected to said valve and to the shaft of the piston, means for controlling the exhaust from either side of the cylinder, a reversing shaft, :1 connection between the latter and said exhaust controlling means. a slide carrying the fulcrum of said lever. an operative connection between said slide and said shaft.

8. In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston therein, a shaft for said piston, a com bined cutoif and reversing valve. an operating shaft for said valve, a uide, a slide upon the latter, a lever fulcrunied upon said slide. a crank connecting said lever and said valve shaft. an eccentric and strap connection between said lever and said piston shaft, and means for operating said slide.

1). In a rotary engine. the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston therein, a shaft for said piston, a combined cut-otl' and reversing valve, an operating shaft for said valve, a guide, a slide upon the latter, a lever fulcrumed upon said slide. a crank connecting said lever and said valve shaft. an eccentric and strap connection between said lever and said piston shaft, an exhaust valve, :1 rod for operating the same, a shaft, a crank upon said shaft connected to said exhaust valve operating rod, a second lever, a connection between the latter and the first mentioned one, a second crank upon said shaft, a connection between the last mentioned crank and the second lever and means for locking said shaft in an adjusted position.

10. The combination of a series of high pressure rotary engines, a series of low pressure rotary engines, the engines of both series having a common shaft, means for admitting steam simultaneously into the engines of the high pressure series, conductors for conveying the exhaust of each high pressure engine to one of the low pressure engines and means for simultaneously reversing the engines of both series, substantially as described.

11. In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston, a swinging abutment to coact with said piston, and means for balancing said abutment.

12. In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston, a swinging abutment to co-act with said piston, and a spring device for balancing said abutment.

11 In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston, a swi ging abutment to co-act with said piston. a cross bar or lever upon the pivot of said abutment, a guide carried by said cross bar, stationary stops, and coil springs surrounding said guide and confined between said stops and said bar or lever, for the purpose set forth.

14. In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston therein, a combined reversing and cut-off valve, an oscillatory element for actuating said valve to cause it to cut 011 and oil the inlet of steam and means for changing the fulcrum of said element to reverse said valve.

15. In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston therein, a combined reversing and cut-off valve, a lever actuated from the shaft of the piston for operating said valve, means for controlling the exhaust and means for simultaneously operating said exhaust controlling means and shifting the fulcrum of said lever.

16. In a rotary engine, the combination of a cylinder, a rotary piston therein, a combined reversing and cut-01f valve. a lever actuated from the shaft of the piston for operating said shaft, a guide, an element slidably engaged with said guide and cart 1g the fulcrum for said lever, and means for actuating said element to change the ful crum of the lever, for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I hereunto allix my presence of two witnesses.

signature in MARTIN B. ERICKSON. Witnesses F. L. CLARK, C. A. Howann. 

